


the light as it shines on the sea

by HuiLian



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: But that MIGHT change in the future, Festivals, Gen, Southern Water Tribe, Waterbending & Waterbenders, everyone but katara is on a minor role, katara and her relationships with waterbending, myths, pakku is a bit of a dick here but that's the way it is, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26377033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuiLian/pseuds/HuiLian
Summary: She pulls her arms back, encircling her head, making the water go around and around and around. Then, she sees them.The waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe.Katara lets out a soft gasp. They’re all around her, in the same stance as she is, pushing and pulling the water to make a wall around the village. They’re here. She’s not alone.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34





	the light as it shines on the sea

**Author's Note:**

> i am, i know, late for the avatar revival, but here is something that hasn't left my mind since I rewatched it and binged fics about it. There's quite a few fics about zuko laying the fire nation soldiers to rest, but i never see a fic about the waterbenders of the southern water tribe who died defending their tribe. and thus this fic was born.
> 
> title from Moana, which is, oddly fitting.

Katara sits next to her dad, listening as the elders of the Southern Water Tribe talk about the preparations for the Glacier Spirits Festival. For the first time in years, they are going to have the festival again. She feels her stomach bubbling with excitement bubbling. They are going to have the festival again! 

Discussions of resources, location, and provision swirl around the hut. Katara listens to all of them, trying to pay attention to what the elders said, but still finding her mind drifting away. 

Then, someone says something that made Katara looks up immediately, “What about the bending ceremony? For the full moon?”

She knows about the ceremony. Gran-gran told her about it every year, and every year, she would go to the very edges of the village, trying to raise the water up, and every year, she would fail. She hasn’t mastered waterbending then. 

She has now. 

Katara opens her mouth, ready to say her piece, but Master Pakku beats her to it. “There will be several of my students who are coming for the festival. I am sure that they can do it.” 

And with that, Katara’s blood boils. What right does Pakku have, to take _her_ heritage from her and make it his own? 

“No,” she challenges. “I’m sorry, Master Pakku, but this is a Southern ceremony. Southern benders should do it.”

Pakku turns to her, flabbergasted. She stands her ground. 

Thankfully, Gran-gran comes to her rescue. “She’s right,” Gran-gran says. “This is Southern Water Tribe ceremony. Maybe next year, or the year after that, your students can help, Pakku, but this year, Southern Water Tribe benders will do it.”

“You only have _one_ bender!” Pakku insists. “I don’t think-”

Her dad raises his hand, cutting off Pakku with the authority of a chief. “Do you think you can do it, Katara?” he asks, ignoring Pakku’s spluttering. “You don’t have to force yourself to do it,” he says softly.

Katara meets her dad’s eyes and nods decisively. “Yes.”

Her dad nods back and turns towards Pakku. “I’m sorry, Master Pakku,” he says, voice stern but still absolutely polite, “but I agree with both my mother and my daughter. This is a Southern ceremony, and Southern tribe members should do it.”

Pakku still looks annoyed, but the rest of the elders are nodding along to what her dad said. Pakku has no choice but to nod curtly. 

Katara smiles and sighs softly. She’s going to do it, after years and years of waiting and hoping. She’s finally going to do it. 

***

Everyone who is _anyone_ comes for the Festival. It’s a gesture of goodwill, they said, because this is the first festival after the hundred-year war. And, since the full moon is just two days after the Festival, most of them stayed for the ceremony. 

Katara looks at her reflection in the water, and breathes. She can do this. She can do this. 

She looks over her shoulder, seeing the broken remainder of her tribe watching her. She also sees Zuko, she sees Aang, she sees Toph, she sees a few of the Earth Kingdom’s royalties, and she sees the Northern ambassadors, but she focuses on her tribe. 

This is their ceremony, and she is going to do it for them. 

She catches Sokka’s eyes, and he smiles at her. She looks at her dad and Gran-gran, who are both looking at her with such pride in their faces. 

She can do this. 

She breathes out, and goes into her stance. 

She feels the energy of the moon inside her and she lets it flow through her body. Push and pull. Tui and La. 

She pulls the water up and lets it back down again, reminiscent of the very first moves she learned. Up, and down. Up, and down, making the pillar larger and larger with each flick of her wrist. 

She moves her legs, going deeper into her stance. Distantly, she hears the astonished sounds from the people behind her, but she ignores it. It’s just her and the moon and the ocean, now. 

She starts moving the water to enclose their village, still making it higher and higher. It’s not as hard as she thought it would be, but she’s still putting all her power into it, making sure that not a single drop of water falls to the people or to the village. 

She pulls her arms back, encircling her head, making the water go around and around and around. Then, she sees them. 

The waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe.

Katara lets out a soft gasp. They’re all around her, in the same stance as she is, pushing and pulling the water to make a wall around the village. They’re here. She’s not alone. 

She can feel herself crying, but she keeps it in, focusing on making the wall of water as high as she can. Up, and up, and up, and up, until all she could see is the water around her and the moon above her. 

From the corner of her eyes, she sees the closest waterbender next to her dissipates into wisps of color, much like the spirit lights. And then, it did something she would have never expected. The lights circle her, and they flow through her, coming in from her stomach and going out from her hands. 

One by one, all the waterbenders around her turns into light, and one by one, the lights flow through her, until she’s left, alone, controlling the wall of water that’s as high as she can make them be. 

Katara brings her arms in, and, in one fluid motion, pushes one of her arms up, making the wall of water around the village transforms into one single pillar of ice, as high as she can make it. To be a bridge between the ocean and the moon for this one, single night. 

(To be a bridge for the members of her tribe, who died far, far away from their land and who never had their funeral rites done for them.)

After the ice settles, Katara sits down, and cries. She’s not alone. The waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe are there with her. 

She’s not alone. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this step into the void with me! kudos and comments make me smile so much you don't even know!
> 
> the line about being a bridge between the moon and the ocean comes from [ this myth ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cowherd_and_the_Weaver_Girl), in which two lovers, who are separated by the milky way, can only meet at a certain date when a flock of magpies will form a bridge. I adapted that to make the two lovers the moon and the ocean!
> 
> i'd tell you to check out my tumblr (huilian.tumblr.com), but it's mostly DC, so... if you're into that.. check it out!


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